When the planes struck, amusement turned to panic on board WestJet’s Boeing 737-800, according to passenger Gustavo Lobo.

“Out of nowhere there was an audible crunch and the plane rocked slightly,” Lobo told CBC News. …”Panic set in when [we saw] what seemed to be fuel spewing from the crash. After a couple of seconds the entire thing ignited and it was chaos inside the plane. People screaming and panicking all while the flight attendants shouted to try and control the situation.”

…”Everybody was saying the F-word and screaming,” [another passenger] said, adding that he mostly stayed calm until black smoke seeped into cabin.

Here’s a photo of the Sunwing aircraft taken by a passenger on another plane:

Passengers on the WestJet aircraft were evacuated by stairs as quickly as possible on one of the coldest nights in the city’s history, while the airport’s fire department extinguished flames from the Sunwing jet — which was being towed out of the gate and had no passengers or crew on board.

Here’s video of a wing on fire and chaotic passenger reactions in the cabin:

Sorry for the delay. An earlier emergency response & extreme cold has resulted in some arriving flights experiencing longer than normal waits. We thank you for your patience while we continue to work with our airline partners to safety accommodate incoming passengers.

More From View from the Wing

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

Comments

Why was no effort being made on the plane at all to evacuate when a fire was spreading from the end of the wing? Are you kidding me that modern aviation needs someone to call someone else and then trigger an alarm? This should be automated so that a fire like that on a fully loaded plane triggers evacuation at the very moment it breaks out. Those fuel tanks are bombs ready to go off and fire could have engulfed the plane in 20-30 seconds when they were sitting there like dumb cows chewing their cud.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.

Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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